First edition of 'Great Gatsby' to be sold at auction

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A first edition copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece, "The Great Gatsby," will be up for sale next month and could fetch up to $150,000, Sotheby's said on Thursday.

The book, which once belonged to the critic and author Malcolm Cowley, will go under the hammer along with a group of Fitzgerald's letters and an unpublished poem in the June 11 books and manuscript sale in New York.

"The book is now almost universally recognized as standing among the great achievements of 20th-century American literature with the tragic story of Jay Gatsby, and more broadly, the American dream, resonating with readers for generations," Sotheby's said in a statement announcing the sale.

Fitzgerald wrote the Jazz Age drama while living in France. Although it was popular when it was published in 1925, it wasn't until Fitzgerald's death in 1940 that it was hailed as the great American novel.

News of the sale comes just weeks after the opening of director Baz Luhrmann's film "The Great Gatsby," starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the hero of the tragic love story.